Calendar crusade for old buildings

The United Club in Bistupur is likely to find place on the heritage calendar again. Picture by Bhola Prasad

The silent mission to save the antique and beautiful buildings — each with a tale to tell — of a century-old city is set to get bigger from the next financial year.

The Rotary Club of Jamshedpur, which had launched an awareness campaign last year, is getting ready to release the third edition of its heritage calendar for the 2013-14 session that, officials said, will feature six architecturally rich structures in it.

The calendar is likely to be unveiled sometime in the middle of March this year, with club officials stating that they would involve a professional photographer and get the common masses to contribute to it this year.

Sources involved said the aim was to focus on quality rather than quantity this year, with members of the club looking to capture rare pictures of the six-targeted heritage buildings.

The calendar, that begins from April and continues till March, last year had featured Jamshedpur’s 12 historical buildings before and around the time of World War II that included the likes of Modi House, Regal Mansion, St George Church, Beldih Church, United Club, Sacred Heart Convent School, National Metallurgical Laboratory.

“The message is simple and clear. The old buildings should not be touched as it bears testimony to the town and its place in history,” said Ronald D’Costa, a Rotarian and hotelier, who is the face of the calendar campaign.

He added that the new calendar would have lesser pictures. “Though nothing has been finalised, both the United Club and St George’s Church might feature in out pages this time around also, albeit clicked from different angles,” D’Costa said.

The other difference, D’Costa claimed, would be the professional photographer, Jamshedpur-based freelancer Rajat Ghosh, that they hire this year.

The photos used for last year’s calendar were mainly from D’Costa’s personal collection.

“We will print 200 copies of the calendar this year with each page having two months and a short description of dates and architectural styles of the buildings featured and people or guests associated with it,” he said.

D’Costa said they would also try and make postcards and picture frames so guests visiting Jamshedpur can take them back as memories.